Cardinal was active in the middle of the Farmington attack with 15 kills. She varied her attack with some good hard hits early in the match and then countered with several well-placed scoring tips later on.

"I played in the off season," Cardinal said. "I worked out a lot. I'm a senior and I feel it's one of my roles to pump up the team and be a leader and try my best."

"She's a completely different player," said Farmington coach Jenn Kuehl. "She's in charge. She's aggressive. She's just so consistent."

Senior outside hitter Marissa Peart added 11 kills and two aces and classmate Kayla Squires had a strong service night with nine aces and one service error in 25 tries.

"We had to hit the spots because they were digging everything," Peart said. "We were tipping and just playing smart."

Sunapee made the trip with just 11 players for both JV and varsity squads, including four varsity-only players. Seven of the Lakers are freshmen.

By contrast, Farmington has five seniors back from its 2011 D-III finalist club and feels it has some unfinished business to take care of this fall. In fact, the Tigers have been to three of the last four finals, winning their first and only title in 2009.

"We want to win it all pretty much," Peart said. "But take it one game at a time."

"That lit a fire under us," Cardinal added about last year's championship loss to Moultonborough. "We want it, we want the championship, that's what you're here for. It's going to make us want it even more. We don't want it to happen again."

In all three games Sunapee managed to stay with the Tigers through the first part of the game before a combination of Farmington's strong serving game and ability to adjust its hitting game and a suddenly suspect Sunapee serve-receive proved to be their downfall.

"We got a little rattled in the middle," said Sunapee co-coach Faith Reney. "They're just not used to playing at this level. But we'll get there."

"Our power works for us, but against a scrappy team it's not always going to work," Cardinal added. "You have to look for the holes on the court

In Game 1, Sunapee led 8-7 following a Tiger serving error. But Farmington turned the tables, scoring seven of the next eight points on the service of Peart and Kelsey Gregoire to go up 14-9 and eventually pull away to the 11-point win. Two Cardinal kills helped out during the surge and she had six kills in the game.

Game 2 was tied at 11 when Kayla Squires stepped to the service line and for six straight points to push the lead to 17-11. She had three aces and Cardinal was again a fixture in the middle with two kills.

Freshman Emily Squires helped to close out the game with five straight service points to push the lead from 19-13 to 23-13.

Peart's serve won the game when the Lakers were unable to handle her offering.

"Serving is going to be key for us," coach Kuehl added. "We have to serve consistently and aggressively. We have to find the weak passers and serve to where they're not. Things like that. Kayla did a great job. She really moved the ball around, served the ball well. We served well as a team."

Sunapee stayed closer for longer in the final game, trailing the Tigers 17-14 and 19-17. Rachel Malanga's ace made it a two-point game, but Peart's kill pushed the lead back to three (20-17) and two service points from Kayla Squires widened the gap to five (22-17).

A kill by Cardinal and two by Peart helped to close out the game and the match.

"There wasn't a lot of pressure on us coming in," said Sunapee co-coach Tom Reney. "We're young. We're new. Just go out and play hard and see what we can do."